The Ayes Have It... Or Do They?

For those Americans skeptical of the Democratic Party's commitment to God or Israel – or both – neither the omissions nor the 11th hour, Obama-mandated reinsertion of these words came as a surprise. Staunch supporters of same-sex marriage and abortion on demand, the DNC worships at the altar of moral relativism and sexual liberation. The God of the Bible... well, you decide. As for Israel, America's relationship with the Jewish state is more uncertain now than at any time in recent history. While the President has not explicitly cast America's support of Israel into question, his administration's actions in his first term have caused many to doubt the White House's commitment to this critical diplomatic relationship. Many view the President's fawning outreach to the Muslim world as a gesture made at the expense of the America-Israel alliance. Add in a few highly publicized criticisms of Israeli policy and it's not hard to understand why Barack Obama garners less than 10% approval among Israeli Jews.

The DNC can whitewash the truth all it wants, but its little platform stunt at the convention betrays a fundamental lack of integrity and a party whose ideology is at odds with its politics. Belief in God and support for Israel is smart politics – the President's supporters in the Black and Hispanic communities tend to be churchgoers, and everyone knows you can't win Florida without the Jewish vote – but these political positions are increasingly out of step with the radical ideology that guides the party's base.

Thus far, the President has been able to straddle the line between the constituencies that make up his party. If the polls at this point are any indication it is unlikely that a dubious record on the issue of faith will dissuade minority voters from pulling the lever for Democrats in November, but as tensions in the Middle East continue to mount this may not be the case for Jewish voters. The DNC can only hope that nothing happens between now and November that will compel the President to stake out a clear position one way or the other. If it does, the architect of Hope and Change might end up a one-termer.